Humanistic City Management: Ambidextrous Strategies for Economic Power and Happiness

With rapid urbanisation of the country, management of urban growth and development has become a top priority for the policy makers as well as implementers. It is difficult, however, to maintain strategic focus and direction of city development because of the prevalence of a multitude of parameters that indicate a city's position vis-à-vis others. It may be helpful to put these indicators in a hierarchy of city needs, using the Abraham Maslow's theory proposed for individuals. Different rankings of cities around the world are categorised using the Maslow's hierarchy. It is argued that in the current context, neither economic power nor happiness alone is enough, as residents seek both, not either-or. Although these are interesting as well as relevant frameworks, they have never been applied to city management in a combined form together. Hence, the main aim of this paper is to suggest strategies for city administration using the literature on Organisational Ambidexterity in the context of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. The major findings highlight the need to eliminate the gap between the law/provisions/books and the practice of city management, replace ad-hoc approach to systematic management in all aspects of city management and recognise the importance of functions of management as applied to cities. The implications of these findings include expansion of stakeholder involvement and inculcation of qualitative aspects of management, such as imagination, creativity, fairness and openness.